John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland

John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland (1636 – 19 March 1717), son of Sir John Campbell of Glen Orchy, and of the Lady Mary Graham, daughter of William Graham, 1st Earl of Airth and 7th Earl of Menteith, was a member of Scottish nobility during the Glorious Revolution and Jacobite risings and also known as "Slippery John". An astutely political man, Campbell was one of the men implicated in the Massacre of Glencoe.

He took part in the abortive royalist uprising under Glencairn in 1654, and was one of those who urged Monck to declare a free parliament in England to facilitate the restoration. He sat in the Scottish parliament as member for Argyllshire from 1669 to 1674.

In October 1672, as principal creditor to George Sinclair, 6th Earl of Caithness, he obtained the inheritance of his lands and properties. After the 6th Earl's death without heirs; he became Earl of Caithness and Viscount of Breadalbane. In 1678 he married the former Earl's widow, Mary Campbell, the Countess of Caithness, an economical step which saved him his obligation to pay her 12,000 marks a year. In 1680 he invaded Caithness with a band of 800 men and defeated and dispossessed the contingent of the Sinclairs. The natural heir, a younger son of the fifth earl however, was subsequently confirmed in his lands and titles by the Parliament of Scotland, so on 13 August 1681, Campbell obtained a new patent which made him Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Viscount of Tay and Paintland, and Lord Glenorchy, Benederloch, Ormelie and Wick, in the Peerage of Scotland, with special power to nominate his successor from among the sons of his first wife. In 1685 he became a member of the Scottish privy council. Though nominally a Presbyterian he had assisted the intolerant and despotic government of the Duke of Lauderdale in 1678 with 1700 men.

...
Wikipedia